Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-09-01
COUNTRY PLEASURES.

Social life in the country had an exist
ence, although it was as sterile as the
soil. Parties of any kind were very rare.
When a visit was decided on, word was
sent to the family some days in advance
or the matter was arranged by the women
during lntermission at church on Sun
days.
When the day came, all preparations
had been MADE. The boy had been over
worked for a week preceding and the
constant stimulus of the threat that if he
didn't attend to business he couldn't go
to Deacon Bangs next Thursday. The
women had fused and worried, had sat
up late nights, and had risen on the
morning of the day two hours before sun
rise to get good start.
After dinner the tWo-horse wagon,
drawn by span of pot-bellied mares,
would be driven up and into 1t would
climb, by the aid of chair, the farmers
wife, carrying baby, the eldest daughter,
a younger one, the boy, and finally the
farmer himself. Sometimes the dog
went along, but whether he did or not he
always wanted to, and in case he wasn't
wanted the boy climbed out after they
had gone little distance and started the
dog on a countermarch by the aid of a
few stones. AS rule, the dog thus sent
back turned up just as they reach the
house of the visitor, and with wagging
tail pretended to believe that he had been
along all the time and that nobody had
ever said a word against his coming.
The procession of one wagon moved
slowly along the road, the old mares
stumbling and franticalIy flashing with
noses and tails at the fiies-if in season
till within sight of the house to be visited.
Then their drooE1ng heads were drawn
up with vigorous jock at the relns, the
whip was applied, the voice was added as
an incentive, and as they went at brisk
trot the flying dust, the rattle of harness,
the chatter of hoofs and the clamor of the
wheels made up a fanfare of vast and ex-
citing dimensions. With much apparent
1iaiculty the team was pulled up at the
Qsate, and there was a look in the farmer s
eye which said Enthusiastically to the host
ava his family who had assembled at the
gate to greet the guests: 'sWhat dye
think of them bosses? Whoa, there! Whoa
| tell yel''
On such occasions the parlor, or best
room, was opened, and no other occasion.
The walls were papered; there was look
ing glass in which one saw his vlsage
pulled all out of shape-a glass which was
decorated with parti- colored tissue paper,
cut into all sorts of figures with pair of
scissors, and intended at once for orna-
ment and to block the invasion of flies; a
''boughten" cotton carpet OF brilliant pat
terms; highly colored picture of Mary,
Queen of Scots, and black silhouette of
gran'ma and gran'pa; couple of snub-
nosed "chance" dogs ON the mantle-p1ece;
a stand, with large family Bible; a chest
of drawers, on the top of which we're two
or three books, such as "The Wonders of
Nature and Providence" Fox's "BOok of
Martyrs" Baxter's Saints Rest" and six
black chairs and rocker with wooden
frames, and footstool covered with cal
leo and framed by the ingenious farmer.
The women folks visited in the parlor
and discussed church and other matters:
the host and his guest sat under tree in
the shade, in their shirt sleeves and talked
"hoss'' and crops, while the boy went off,
accompanied by the home dog and the
visiting one, and tried TO scrape up a
woodchuck in the old "paster," and failed,
and at last succeeded in freeing a SOUR
rel, which they amused themselves by
stoning without any damage. The dogs
got along we'll after little. At first
when they met they erected their tails
and bristled and turned up their upper
lips and glared, growled and shifted at
each other in very ferocious and me-
nacing way.
They affiliated very nicely till they
were on the way home, when, in the old
straw behind the barn, the boys, each
seizing his dog by the neck and ears,
brought them forcibly together, rubbed
their noses, and otherwise irritated and
instigated them till their bad passions
were aroused, and to the slogan, Sick i'm,
Bull" and "Sick i'm, Cesar!" they fought
a vigorous round or two till one dropped
his tail and ki-yi'd Enough in the IN
mistakable language. And then the boys
went to the house fer supper, and sat
around with watering mouths while the
others were eating, and they groged them
selves on slices of cold boiled pork. three
kinks of cake, apple sass, "punkIn" and
and apple pie and the the remnants OF
some cups of custard.
About shutdown the old mares were
hitched up. aud the load moved off at
swift trot till it passed around the wood
in the hollow, when the farmer pulled his
speeds down to a slow walk and continued
NAS So1e bAi ebCS ASdShS4 hoHAN'
Then the farmer nharnessed the hors-
es, and the boy went out and drove IN the
COWS, after which he rode one horse and
led the other to the wood pasture; then
came back and helped carry in and strain
the milk, fed couple of calves. lugged
two pals OF sw1ll to the hog-pen. after
which he drove the COWS out to the pas
ture, and then came back and was sent to
bed.
Counting in the country at that period
was probably not different in principle
from that which prevails at the present
time everywhere. Such differences as
they may be have reference rather to the
methods than the purpose involved.
The preliminary steps to the regular
business of counting were innumerable.
ever unlike and perhaps indefnable. 1t
might be that the couple sat side by side
on the bench at the spelling school; that
they met at an "apple-bee;" or that any